Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Separate egg whites and bring the egg whites to room temperature. Meanwhile stir together the flour and 3/4 cup of sugar in a medium bowl.

After egg whites have reached room temperature, put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt into a large bowl. Beat until foamy. Slowly add the 3/4 cup of sugar (about 2 tablespoons at a time) while beating. Continue beating until the mixture holds stiff straight peaks. Gently stir in the vanilla and almond extract.

[Note: In Grandma’s day, they would have beaten the eggs by hand. I feel tired just thinking about it.]

Sprinkle a small amount of the flour and sugar mixture (about 2 tablespoons) onto the whipped egg mixture; and then fold it in. Continue sprinkling and folding the flour and sugar mixture until it all is folded in.

Gently spoon the batter into an ungreased 10 X 4 tube pan (angel food cake pan). Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the cake is lightly browned and the top springs back when lightly touched.

Crush a few black raspberries , stir in several tablespoons of sugar, and add enough water to make the consistency of medium sauce. Refrigerate for at least one hour to give the sugar in the sauce enough time to lose its granularity. Serve over the cake. Sprinkle which whole black raspberries.

An aside—When I was a child I loved the black raspberries that grew in the hedgerows. These days I never can find them in stores.

Two years ago my husband and I planted several black raspberry plants, and this is the first summer that we have lots of berries.

The black raspberries are awesome—even better than I’d remembered them.

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18 Responses

This brought a smile to my face, remembering the angel food cake I baked for the 4-H fair. I made it from scratch with 12 egg whites, and won a blue ribbon. Nowadays I use a mix, but I wonder if the ‘scratch’ one didn’t taste better!

I’m definitely making this. I have massive rows of blackberries, all in flower, on my property. I wish they were the wild blackberries, or black raspberries, but the Himalayan blackberries, though delicious, choke out all the native species.
I need to make this. I don’t know if I’ll beat by hand, but I may do it, eventually. :) Hmmmm… my thimbleberries might be ready earlier…

One of the things l love most about diaries, such as Helena’s, is that there is a real flavor of daily living, what they did, who they saw, where they went, or who came over. Unaffected slice of life is to me the cake and ice cream — so your take on this day was spot on..

Thanks for the recipe – will have to try it. Maybe the 4th of July – hopefully I can find blackberries. Will try the farmers market, not the one in Lewisburg since I work Wed, (not sure if the one in Lewisburg was open while you still lived around here) but Williamsport finally has one on Saturdays. ~Patty

Blackberries are my favourite berry. I still have some in the freezer from one year we had lots of them, but they are very variable. I love all your recipes. Wonder what they did with the plums after making this one. They didn’t waste them, I bet!

Hello

I look forward to sharing my grandmother's diary with relatives and friends. Helena Muffly (Swartz) kept a diary from 1911-1914. She was 15 years old when she began this diary. I plan to post these entries one day at a time—exactly 100 years after she wrote them. I hope you enjoy this glimpse back to a slower paced time.

The header is a picture of the farm where my grandmother lived when she wrote this diary. It is located in Northumberland County in central Pennsyvlania about a mile outside of McEwenvsille. My father said that the buildings look similar to what they looked like when he was a child.